Scarcity or Abundance | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: One reason people are scrambling for their own savings is the end of pensions, caused because the "experts" said that pension plans that were not fully funded for the future needed to be. In reality, that recommendation, which is still being made for urban pensions, moves employers to shift from defined benefits to defined contributions - which yield better commissions for the "experts." This has caused the upper middle class to go on a Wall Street buying binge and to insist that they need every penny they can to save for a secure retirement in their Roth IRAs. In reality, they would be better off as investors to pay higher taxes, grow the economy and get a better return. Indeed, growth in the economy is measured as consumption spending (which is goosed by transfer payments) and government investment.
No corporate investment manager would ever suggest that the firm invest in a new factory, or even upgrade the line equipment or computers, absent a healthy public or private customer base willing to spend money. Low tax rates and available investment funds are a detail in that analysis. Any investment manager who said they were the most important thing would be fired.
The ultimate solution is the kind of cooperative socialism where employees own the company, set the wage for management and provide themselves a secure pension in retirement, which might even be earlier if the firm is profitable (socialism and profit are not mutually exclusive). Early retirement means more workers get jobs - again growing the economy. Having to work longer makes jobs scarce. We can start with a shorter work week, moving to four days and six and a half hour days, with the same overall salary as a 40 hour week. If we don't reward CEOs with low tax rates so that they can keep the funds that they cut from labor, it will be a lot easier. Senator Sanders had the right idea there.
Where does the empty tomb come in here? Pluralism (as opposed to solidarity). There are Catholics who believe in cooperative socialism. Whether the empty tomb is necessary for such an economic solution, the fact is that significant cooperativist founders, like my great-grandfather (a Disciple of Christ) and the priest who organized Mondragon, were believers. Marx has no monopoly on these concepts. Neither does Rome.
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